FRANKFURT AM MAIN: German prosecutors said on Monday they had fined high-end car maker BMW $9.6 million (8.5 million euros) over diesel cars with higher harmful emissions than allowed, while adding the infraction was down to error rather than deliberate fraud. “Munich prosecutors have ordered a fine of 8.5 million euros for the administrative offence of negligence in quality control,” investigators said in a statement. Authorities had been probing BMW since early 2018 over suspicions it could have built a so-called “defeat device” into some diesel cars
Such technologies allow the vehicle to reduce emissions under test conditions, while emitting far higher levels of pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NOx) on the road. In Germany, Volkswagen has paid one billion euros in fines over defeat devices following its 2015 admission that it installed them in 11 million cars worldwide, while high-end subsidiary Audi has paid 800 million euros. And last week, prosecutors in Stuttgart said they had opened a “fine proceeding” against Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler over the same suspicions relating to 7,00,000 cars. But the number of vehicles showing irregularities in BMW’s case is far smaller, at just under 8,000
